Saga of the Soul Dungeon

"In the realm of everyday enchantments, breakfast is the silent spell that awakens our spirits, turning simple sustenance into a magical journey through the realms of flavor and warmth."

-Excerpt from the foreword to The Recipes of Yslandoria

==Zidaun==

I wanted nothing more than to rest, but returning to the grotto also meant a return to my people.

Which meant Izradi popped up as soon as we emerged.

“Ancient!” he cried. “How wonderful it is to see you safely return.”

He eyed our group, each of us obviously exhausted.

“Though,” he continued, “it seems you need your rest. There is nothing urgent, just yet.”

“Yes, thank you,” I managed. “Time got muddled while we were delving. How long were we gone?”

“Of course, Ancient. This is the seventeenth day,” he said.

I could faintly hear Gurek muttering something to Inda.

Never too tired to gloat, huh, Gurek?

I did my best to avoid rolling my eyes. I doubted Izradi would understand.

After that, we took to our beds as expeditiously as possible. Settling into the plush fabric and soft mattress, I was barely able to appreciate the softness before I fell asleep.

Waking came in fits and starts, my mind doing its best to take every iota of relaxation out of the bed. Muzzy half thoughts formed and went, along with half remembered dreams of strange corridors extending into infinity; my mind drifted.

Still, eventually I had to get up.

Getting out of bed was a more difficult fight than any monster we had encountered so far. Truly, my dungeon’s offered luxury was the real trap.

A trap that I desperately wanted to fall back into.

My body was recovered, however, and my mind would benefit from ordinary activities. We all needed some time free from dungeon delving. We had taken breaks while delving, but like I had told Izradi, the fuzzy nature of time had made the breaks less restful than they ought to have been.

My ability to borrow the dungeon’s abilities meant that none of us were filthy. Manipulating dirt and other particles to come off the skin was a delicate and slow, but not particularly mana intensive, task. I had done that for all of us, but I had a feeling that each of us would take the opportunity later to take a bath.

For now, I could sense the other party, so I went downstairs, promptly finding myself inside the kitchen.

“Zidaun!” Tarrae shouted, “you have no idea how glad we are to see you.”

==Tarrae==

The other team had finally, finally, come back.

None of us had the chance to see them before they were snoring, though Anaath checked in the other Adar. They had returned completely intact, but utterly exhausted.

Honestly, after delving for almost two weeks, I couldn’t blame them.

We were tired, and we had still been operating on a proper schedule, making sure we took a day off every few days.

To be fair, at least half of our tiredness was from dealing with the same area over and over again.

It wasn’t like it wasn’t rewarding, either.

I hadn’t leveled, but I had achieved some improvements.

Your skill Light Sovereign II has increased to Light Sovereign III.

Your title: Mana Domain I has become Mana Domain II.

Mana Domain II

To have a domain is to show mastery and dominion over an aspect of magic, combining multiple skills together into a more effective whole. You are not merely a novice, instead progressing to create multiple domains. Go forth, and claim dominion.

+10% boost to the power and effectiveness of all domain skills

+Gain an advantage against other entities when taking control of any held domain magic, or when using domain magic against an opposing elemental type. If both parties have a domain, then their titles will come directly into conflict.

+750 (250 existing + 500) AP

The boost in strength was noticeable, especially against the Mirage Dancer. Still, I was tired of doing the same thing, day after day.

Honestly, it was strange that I found it so tiresome.

Dungeons were almost always boring, to some degree, because most of them were the same.

A typical dungeon was an eclectic mix of mishmashed architecture and corridors, with patches of greenery or almost sensible designs. Some of the more interesting dungeons didn’t bother to conceal their nature as caves, instead placing normal environments inside them as though they fit: a swamp, a bone forest, a coral salt flat. They were all confusing, involved at least some backtracking, and the monsters didn’t change much. The level difference between the entrance and the rest of the interior was a small jump in levels.

Different floors, or discrete areas, showed up in a normal dungeon but they were usually just a slight difference in environment, a swamp to a bog or bone forest to a stone wood, and an equally small change in monster level. Monster attacks were usually pretty random inside any given area, with the exception of the bosses.

Occasionally, some dungeons had puzzles, labyrinths, or other odd sections. And some dungeons would have a few environmental features placed inside more normal architecture, like mud, plants, etc…

I had been spoiled by this dungeon. I had come to expect more from it. And my party all seemed to share that impatience.

Even Anaath’s attitude seemed to have shifted away from his omnipresent grumpiness. I had a suspicion that was at least partially due to his visits with the other Adar, though. Twice I had seen him with a slightly embarrassed air as he came back from talking to the former desert dwellers.

At least some of the arrivals were his actual relatives… probably. Unless I was reading too much into it. However, that embarrassed expression was one I had seen many times: on a sibling, cousin, or one of my nieces and nephews. It was the familiar embarrassment of having your family point out you were acting like an ass.

Gods know I have worn that expression myself, a time or two. Okay, probably more than that.

I was grateful I had family willing to point it out, in balance. It was far better to feel a little embarrassment than let yourself become an asshole in the longer term.

With Anaath’s mood mellowing out, at least somewhat, our party’s cohesiveness had grown as a whole.

When the morning of the next day came, all of us were ready to greet the other scout party, starting with Zidaun.

After my enthusiastic greeting, the rest of the team gave their own greetings. And, if Anaath’s greeting was a little less enthusiastic and a bit strained, well… we weren’t going to call him on it.

At least he managed to do better as the other members of Zidaun’s team came down.

==Zidaun==

I was happy enough to talk with the other team, especially since it let me delay dealing with Izradi. Socializing with the other team was important, and apparently they had waited to enter the woods. Probably a smart decision, considering the levels of danger.

It should be possible for them to handle it, but some of the dangers could prove fatal without some foreknowledge.

Normally there was only a single party scouting a new dungeon, anyway. It made sense for the stronger party to shoulder more of the risk. My team was both stronger, and had far more experience delving unexplored dungeons.

I talked with Tarrae, while Soara was busy doing something with the oven and stove. Some kind of porridge was shaping up there, with chunks of dried fruit melding into it and emitting a sweet aroma, mixing with the faint smell of the wood burning in the stove.

The smell of the porridge was enough to cover another smell, which I only noticed minutes later.

“Are you cooking bread?” I asked, my mouth starting to water.

Soara turned around from where he was was stirring, keeping the porridge from burning.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m usually the cook. I’m the only one who actually likes do it, so it works out well enough. Of course…” he gestured vaguely toward the kitchen as a whole, “I was just making do with a campfire until we got here. The meals didn’t improve that much, at first.”

He flashed a smile at me.

“Only so much I could do with dried ingredients. I’m no chef. The dungeon though,” he nodded toward the window, beyond which was the rest of the grotto and the dungeon’s entrance, “it is absolutely full of plants.”

He sighed, and then chuckled slightly.

“Of course, other than a few specific fruit trees, and apparently some grains that the dungeon added when all your people showed up, it was all useless. Anything harvested before they showed up though, or past certain limits for the few things that we were allowed to take…” he snorted with a sardonic smile, “well, you know, it dissolves and then it’s like you never even bothered.”

I did.

Gurek had a skill that let him take samples, but that was the limit of the skill. It was meant to take samples, and that was all it allowed for. You couldn’t use it to harvest food to eat.

It was also hard to say how much he had even needed the skill in this dungeon, before we entered the Wandering Woods. I was almost certain that Caden had been watching us carefully every step of the way, up until he slipped into slumber.

Even knowing that others would be coming behind us, Gurek had been unable to resist taking some samples. The extreme variety made it hard to tell what plants, if any, were actually unique to the dungeon. For all we knew, all the plants were like the skyrays, and were from the other continent. Even that would be valuable, though. If nothing else, a local source of plants that were exotic, but with known properties, would be an immense boon for alchemists.

Soara continued to speak, pulling me out of my reverie.

“Fortunately, your people,” he waved vaguely in my and Anaath’s direction, “came with lots of Stabilizers. In addition to the wheat, we have been able to harvest a ton of different herbs.” He turned around again for a moment to stir, before turning back toward me. He made a vague gesture and shrugged. “A bunch of edible things I know nothing about, too. Roots, foreign herbs, and such.”

Tarrae shuddered briefly, followed by Anaath and Norana.

“Aw, come on…” Soara said.

“He, uh,” Tarrae spoke hesitantly, “experimented. I think the food was technically edible.”

“How was I to know it would get that bitter when you cooked it?” Soara said, grumblingly, before brightening up after a moment. “You guys have liked some of the other stuff. Besides, I have been taste testing anything new first now, including after I cook it. That root was only slightly bitter before it was cooked. Most roots get more savory, or sweet, after cooking.”

Whatever other merits Soara’s cooking possessed, positive or negative, the smells were enough to start summoning the other members of my party.

Firi was first, and I greeted him with a warm smile, which he returned. He promptly heaved himself into a chair, making the wood creak slightly.

“Please tell me you are making enough for us, too?” he said with a pleading edge.

Soara just laughed with good cheer, before he responded.

“Well at least someone appreciates my cooking. Don’t worry, there should be more than enough.”

“Pretty sure he has never seen Gurek when he is truly hungry,” I muttered.

Soara didn’t say anything, but his faint chuckle was enough to show he heard me. Hardly surprising for someone who specializes in perceiving sound.

Huh, he probably only started to cook, and put the bread into the oven, when I was getting out of bed.

This breakfast was made specifically for us.

“Sorry if I didn’t ask that earlier,” I said, shaking my head. “I am grateful for a well prepared meal to start the day.”

Inda and Gurek came down shortly after Firi, each taking their own moment to stare hungrily at the preparing food, before they settled down and joined the rest of us.

“Now that you are all here,” Tarrae said, before waving toward where Soara was stirring and adding some spices to the porridge, “and before you all get too distracted. What can you tell us about your experience?”

The next few minutes became an overview of what we had dealt with.

It was interrupted by breakfast, which was wonderful. Warm spices contrasted with bursts of flavor and sweetness in the chewy fruit pieces. And all of that was supplemented with a loaf of steaming bread, the crust cracking open beneath a knife to show a pale brown interior flecked with bits of green. Each bite fulfilled the promise of the herbal steam, the softness of the bread’s interior contrasting against the crunch of the crispy crust.

It was fantastic, and afterward we were happy enough to fetch our notes, providing the proper detail on the Wandering Woods, which filled the next couple hours.